The Tenative Chain of McKinseys

The farthest back proven ancestor in the McKinsey line is Charles William "Chas" McKinsey, Sr. who was born Nov. 1926 in Kentucky maybe. The year is known and month is from a census record (though not proven) and the states vary from census to census, but Kentucky and Virginia are the most common places mentioned. 

Charles is known and his children and wife are known and her parents are known and recorded well enough for my liking so far. But Charles Sr. is of less certain parentage. He is agreed by all who have connection to him to be the son of Douglas McKinsey and Elizabeth (Palmer) McKinsey, but no records have I found to PROVE this relationship. I have records of Charles in photographs and letters and family pedigrees and trees of both good and questionable quality, but no known death place or certificate for Charles only his grave marker in Oklahoma (where the family moved to and it is not certain that he died there and not somewhere else. For such a thing has happened before where an ancestor died in one state but was buried in another closer to family even in long past generations).

Charles William McKinsey, Sr b. 1824 d. 1901 is assumed to be the son of Douglas and Elizabeth (Palmer) McKinsey. The only evidence of such a couple is their marriage license. While census records do show proof of Charles mother being named Elizabeth (she is living with him in one census and another with her brother and her maiden name proven to be Palmer). However nothing of the presumed father 'Douglas' in the census nor any other place save perhaps a tax list. No will of either Charles nor this Douglas have been found as yet either. 

Charles did have a son named John Douglas and it is possible that his assumed father Douglas went by another name for nothing comes up when searching for a Douglas McKinsey (of any spelling) in Virginia where he was known to live nor in Kentucky or other places the later generations lived. It is thought that if the link is true and his is Charles' father that he died during the Civil War or soon after it for he does not seem to appear in the later censuses and Charles' mother is a presumably a widow living with her grown son and later her brother and his family.

Douglas is assumed to be the son of Charles McKinsey and Elizabeth Isabel (Jett) McKinsey who are known by Charles and maybe Douglas being on a tax list and Charles and Isabel's marriage license.

Charles of Virginia as I will call him to differate him from his assumed grandson is also one of few records. There is a Charles McKinsey born in Virginia in 1772 the son of Scottish immigrants Benjamin and Agnes (Broadfoot) McKinsey and it is further thought that Benjamin may be the son of William and Mary (McIntosh) McKinsey of Scotland but again this is all assumed for this was the only Benjamin who turned up in the searches of the right age to be the same as was father to Charles b 1772.

Charles b. 1772 might be the same who married Isabel Jett, but it is not proven.

Charles of Virginia whether he be the same as Charles 1772 or not might be father of Douglas and Douglas might be father of Charles Wm Sr. but naught has been PROVEN other than the mother of Charles was named Elizabeth and her maiden name was likely Palmer and this could be the same as married Douglas - yet beyond that it is all guesses and 'this fits' without PROOF.

Family is more than blood

I was adding some people to my tree on ancestry from my master copy of my tree most names with birth and death years to flesh out later. One family is too unconventional for ancestry to understand and so unrelated people show up as half-siblings. Probably partly my fault for having the step-dad attached to all his step-kids from his four wives so step kids with no bio connection to each other are listed as half siblings.

It's a fun puzzle. I always try to include the step-families and adopted and similar in my trees as I feel that they are still part of the family even if not by blood. One of the main reasons is to honor the Nance family in my own way. And the other being that my grandmother's Culpepper line are actually the descendants of the step-son of a Culpepper (bio-father not known).

Edmun (also spelled as Edmund) Nance was born in St. Clair Missouri in 1845 and married Matilda Bradley. 

They had three children : William Henry Nance, James Nance and Laura (Nance) Owens.

Matilda died and Edmun remarried. 

His second(?) wife was Mary J.

Mary J. had two sons from a prior relationship: Greeley R "Horace" Graham b 1872 and William Henry Graham b 1875 - the brothers are recorded with the Nance surname in 1880 instead of Graham.

Edmun Mary J. and all the kids are in the 1880 census Arkansas.

1880 Census has Mary's sons with Edmun's surname but 1900 has it as Graham 

- Greeley in Edmun's household as step-son and William Henry Graham next door in step-brother William Henry Nance's household as step-brother.

Edmun and Mary had one known child together: Elizabeth (Nance) Griffin b 1882.

Mary J. is assumed to have died sometime before 1900 as I have not found her in that census and Edmun is listed as a widower.

By 1900 Edmun is a widower with two 'new' step-children: Mary Elizabeth Ridgley and John H Christ.

John H Christ was a boy maybe a teenager when his older brother Greeley married in 1901 and the three Greeley, his bride Amanda Davis and his step-brother John are all in a wedding photo together, that was taken in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).

Greeley R Graham married Amanda Delina Davis and his brother William Henry "Bill" Graham married Amanda's sister Norma Ellen "Nan" Davis.

Greeley and Amanda had 12 children together and all of them lived to adulthood married and had children. One of two families in my tree that can boast such a feat.

I had never heard of the Nance family before but when I brought them up in conversation with my grandmother's brother (a grandson of Greeley Graham) he recalled hearing his father Harper  (Greeley's eldest) and his grandfather (Greeley) talk about "Old Man Nance" when he was young, but did not know who it was they were talking about.